The women were fed up.

Their people had been consumed by civil war for decades

Their sons were being sacrificed to a cloudy cause.

Their husbands were off making war instead of making whoopee.

So, the gals from the warring sides united, hatched a plan, played their hand and told their men: Lay down your swords if you want to get laid.

Event

A reading of Aristophanes' "Lysistrata: A Woman's Translation," written by former Bellingham resident Drue Robinson Hagan begins 7 p.m. Monday at the Mount Baker Theatre's Encore Room, 112 W. Champion St. in Bellingham. Donations will be accepted. More on Lysistrata Project: www.lysistrataproject.com

That's the premise of the bawdy anti-war comedy the Greek playwright Aristophanes wrote 2,500 years ago. On Monday, translations of his play "Lysistrata" will be read across the nation and around the world to protest a possible war in Iraq.

A Bellingham reading at Mount Baker Theatre joins a worldwide chorus that will include famous voices such as Mercedes Ruehl, Peter Boyle and Kevin Bacon on the East Coast along with Julie Christie, Christine Lahti and Eric Stoltz on the West Coast.

Local organizer Margaret Gude, 41, says the event - dreamed up by two actresses in New York City and known as the Lysistrata Project - gives artists and theater workers a chance "to do something in our medium to voice our dissent to the war, and to use a classic play that was written 2,500 years ago (that) unfortunately still rings true today."

SERIOUS LAUGHTER

"Anyone is invited to listen to this reading. We hope everybody comes because there's something to learn from it," adds Gude, who works in the president's office at Whatcom Community College.

TIME TO ACT: Drue Robinson Hagan, founder of Bellingham Children's Theatre, translated the bawdy, anti-war comedy by ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes that will be read in Bellingham and hundreds of communities across the nation and world. RACHEL E. BAYNE HERALD FILE PHOTO

The modern adaptation being read here - in rhyme, no less - comes courtesy of 38-year-old Drue Robinson Hagan, the founder and former director of the Bellingham Children's Theatre, and a friend of Gude's.

Hagan, now living in Manhattan while pursuing a master's degree in acting from Columbia University, had been working bit by bit on a translation of Aristophanes' play for 10 years before pushing the past few weeks to finish her interpretation in time for Monday.

"I am not an Aristophanes scholar, but I did fall in love with his comedy when I first read it 20 years ago," she says via e-mail.

Her "Lysistrata: A Woman's Translation," which is easily understood, will be read by more than 264 theater and community groups across the nation. (Lysistrata is the name of the sassy heroine who dreamed up the idea of bedroom diplomacy.)

The project has been around only since January but the number of readings has increased - and continues to grow - dramatically. The latest figures indicate 919 readings are scheduled in all 50 states here and 56 countries. "This was an excellent project through which people could express their sentiments about war, by using an ancient model," Hagan says.

"Theater, at its best, reflects the culture in which it is created, and it is obvious that there are many, many voices who oppose what looks like might become World War III," she adds.

In Bellingham, area actors will read some of the parts but audience members, if they want to, also may rotate in on some lines.

Bellingham actor-director J.D. Merris will read one of the male roles.

The 51-year-old real estate agent and kitchen designer hopes participants "leave with a sense of connection and reconviction to efforts to have a peaceful world."

While the message is deadly serious - the ravages of war and what those who feel powerless can do to stop violence - it is relayed in a sexually charged, wink-wink way with loads of reference to things, er, hard.

"There's a lot of allusions to sexual acts and phalluses," Gude says. "It's very funny."

It is possible to tickle your funny bone and stimulate your conscience at the same time, participants insist.

"Comedy reveals truth, human frailty, human weakness," Gude says. "It's a wonderful medium to bring home a message."

Hagan agrees: "Laughter and creativity oftentimes have more power than warships and missiles."

Copyright © 2002, The Bellingham Herald

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